Inorganic microporous membranes for hydrogen separation: Challenges and solutions

Abstract

Porous membrane separation is a competitive hydrogen purification technology due to the advantages of environmental friendliness, energy-saving, simple operation, and low cost. Benefiting from the booming development of materials science and chemical science, great progress has been made in H2 separation with porous membranes. This review focuses on the latest advances in the design and fabrication of H2 separation inorganic microporous membranes, with emphasis on the synthetic strategies to achieve structural integrity, continuity and stability. This review starts with a brief introduction to the membrane separation mechanisms, followed by an elaboration on the synthetic challenges and corresponding solutions of various high-performance inorganic microporous membranes based on zeolites, silica, carbon, and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). At last, by highlighting the prospects of ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) porous membranes, we wish to shed some light on the further development of new materials and membranes for highly efficient hydrogen separation.

Keywords

• microporous membrane
• h2 separation
• zeolite membrane
• silica membrane
• carbon membrane
• metal-organic framework (mof) membrane